Everyone must do their duty for Canada – even Sun News Network ideologues

Admiral Horatio Nelson gives up his life in the service of his country on the deck of HMS Victory on Oct. 21, 1805. Below: Horatio Nelson; his famous signal to his fleet: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Surely, Canada should expect no less!

NEW YORK

“England expects that every man will do his duty,” Admiral Horatio Nelson signalled from HMS Victory to the brave sailors his fleet as the Battle of Trafalgar, the decisive naval fight of the Napoleonic Wars, commenced.

Sometimes there is a moment in a nation’s history when all good people must do their duty, no matter how hard.

Compared to the fate that on Oct. 21, 1805, awaited many British seamen – including Admiral Nelson himself – the sacrifice required of the supposed patriots employed in the Ideology Department of the Sun News Network is not very great.

Still, we recognize it is a sacrifice.

Sun News Network publishes the Sun tabloid newspapers, owns rural and small town weeklies across Canada and broadcasts the odious Sun TV commentary programs, and as such is home to a raft of so-called straight talkers like Ezra Levant, Michael Coren, Brian Lilley and the former Parliamentarian from Medicine Hat Monte Solberg.

Every one of these gentlemen would have us believe he is a loyal Canadian of the most patriotic stock. Indeed, it is part of the Sun chain’s shtick. The TV network, for example, characterizes itself as “unapologetically patriotic.”

Now the owner of Sun News Network and the animating spirit behind its relentlessly spun news coverage and tireless far-right propaganda, Pierre Karl Péladeau, has announced that he will be running for the Parti Quebecois in the next Quebec election.

Technically, Mr. Péladeau is the owner of Quebecor Inc., the corporate owner of Sun News Network and other English and French media operations. But the line from Mr. Péladeau through his corporate head office to the troops in the understaffed newsrooms of the chain throughout the land is direct and unequivocal.

Mr. Péladeau’s ambition, he bluntly admits, is to sever Quebec from Canada and create a new country that his children can be proud of. It has been said here his commentators have not done much to make them proud of Canada – but that was before the threat was obvious.

Now Mr. Péladeau may very well destroy the nation his network claims to unapologetically love.

Moreover, he says he has no intention of giving up his ownership stake in Quebecor – although it would seem he’s prepared to put it for a spell in what the Sun would no doubt call a Venetian-blind trust if it were a Liberal or New Democrat politician we were talking about.

This is something that men like Messrs. Levant, Coren, Lilley, Bell and Solberg, and a host of lesser lights at lesser Quebecor addresses throughout the land, will have to think about as they put their minds to the work that will be required of us all to save our country.

Now, I’m not saying that they owe it to themselves to say and do the right thing, or that they ought to think about it, or eventually get around to it.

I am saying that they have a duty to speak up clearly, unequivocally and loudly for their country. Now.

These are the people who claim to be the Canadian masters of “straight talk,” and there has never been a time in our country’s history when straight talk has been needed more.

If they are threatened by their arm’s length proprietor, they have a duty to ignore him.

And if they are prevented from doing their duty, they have the additional obligation to quit and no longer serve a man and an organization that – regardless of how they are loved for their ideology by the PMO of Stephen Harper – would then be like a dagger pointed at the heart of our country.

If they do not speak up for Canada directly, forthrightly, courageously and immediately, we will know what they are made of, and what they are.

As Admiral Nelson might have said on that bloody day in 1805: “That will do, gentlemen. Make it directly!”

NOTE: Astonishingly, here in New York City where one comes every year to be reinspired by Broadway, there’s nary a word in the local press about the fate of the Alberta Progressive Conservative dynasty, what Dave Hancock is likely to do in his unexpected role of interim premier, or who may try to replace him. This is shocking in a way since it was just a year and a few days ago that the government of then-premier Alison Redford took out a $30,000 ad in the New York Times touting the Keystone XL Pipeline. Do these people remember nothing? Well, we’ll return to all those things soon enough, leastways, if this blogger makes it out of town on Tuesday ahead of what the local press is covering: “The Snow Bomb.” This post also appears on Rabble.ca.

6 Comments on "Everyone must do their duty for Canada – even Sun News Network ideologues"

The gutless wonders at Sun TV will always spout the scripts sent to them by the one hundred monkeys held captive in the PMO. And they will never, ever, bite the hand that figuratively, if not literally, feeds them.

Mr. Péladeau’s Quebecor has received almost a half billion dollars in subsidies from Canadian taxpayers over the past three years. Why would he jeopardize that?

And what exactly is the relationship between Quebecor, Sun TV and the Harperites? Stephen Harper himself is an avowed separatist (the Alberta firewall letter), much like Mr. Péladeau. Is that the link? And Mr. Harper is on record saying that it didn’t matter to him if Canada had one, two or ten separate governments. Isn’t a prime minister of Canada supposed to promote, and work for, the unity of the country?

The history books record that once upon a time their was a craft practiced in societies whose task was to enlighten the citizenry. I think it was called ‘journalism’. If only we could return to those halcyon days. Perhaps then we would discover the truth.

No Sun media ideologues, nor anyone else, need to fight for Canada against the separatist hordes. They (PQ) are doing a wonderful job themselves of stumbling out of power. Our job, as federalists, is to get out of their way as they fall.

I seem to recall reading one commentator, who it was I can’t recall right now (it might have been yourself, for all I know), suggesting that Mr Peladeau’s Machiavellian strategy for his Quebecor media outlets was to make TROC so unwelcoming to the French fact in Canada that it would drive Quebecers into the arms of the PQ and into voting ‘Yes’ in the next referendum. Therefore, the jingoistic, flag-waving, pro-Anglo drivel spouted by the likes of the Sun newspapers is in fact perfectly consistent with such a strategy.

Yes, it is truly amazing that you hear nothing from Sun News about their boss and his political leanings. I don’t even believe Mr. Peladeau is a real separatist, I think he is an opportunist. Mr. Levesque was a principled person and a separatist, and someone of great integrity–even though his dream would never work out. I think people should do what they can to speak out against the power of Mr. Peladeau, but most importantly, hope and pray that the Liberals and the CAQ(whom I disagree with on many issues)manage to win enough seats to beat the PQ. In terms of Sun News, the only thing that can be done is to contact Sun News and let them know what you think and threaten their bottom line. The problem is, will that matter? Will they have enough fans who don’t really care about it to do anything. I don’t have Sun News, but I do get Fox News, and I have watched it enough to know that they keep getting loonier and loonier and yet Murdoch pumps enough money to keep it going. Perhaps we should contact their advertisers and tell them we will boycott their products if they keep advertising on Sun News. That might make more of a difference.

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